I realize that most of us like to talk about ourselves - within reason. And that it often comes as a great relief to actually have someone interested in what you have to say - which sometimes opens a one-way valve in their brain !

"I wish I could say my last date was an anomaly, but that experience has been the norm. Another suitor talked at me for two hours, except to take a bathroom break. He didn’t ask me one single question — not one."

Definitely not the same guy, and we were on the phone - but similar experience. At one point, after about an hour and a half in, and him giving me every tiny detail of what he lived in and where, I mentioned something about my house, and he responded : " yeah I really haven't heard about your home !". I thought maybe he'd tired of talking about himself and things were about to equalize ...

He promptly changed the subject to talk about his daughter and Grandchildren . Also personal details of people I don't know that I'll likely never meet. Ugh.

After that, it was all about his military career .... Gotta go now !!
The main reason I insist on phone time before deciding to meet.

I retired after 31 years in a AUTO Factory. I can say I worked with many people with this problem.

Well Ms. Literate Hiker, I too have talked to a few men recently. IN FACT, that's about all I have talked to lately, except last 2 weeks customer, Joyce. Joyce is in her 70's. Widowed, sharp as a tack and quite a hoot at the lunch table. She fed us everyday!

Anyway, back to these men, that you and I have been talking to. You on dates, me....not at all !
Anyway, I digress.

Yeah, these guys are something. They certainly get my anxiety up. I'm thinking of my brother, my guitar friend Chris, the gutter guy Don.......Definitely unknowing in the art of conversation. No style, no empathy, very little listening. When I end up saying anything when I desire to be heard, it becomes WORK. Even if I am trying to just say good bye ( Go Away !). A lot of the time, I just don't bother speaking at all.

My brother simply feels a "need" to espouse on every little nick of a comment. Begins rambling, and I mean rambling on !! before the complete sentence has left my lips. Kills it before it can crawl. It is dead and rotting before he could possibly have any idea of the meaning in what I am saying. Yet he has now barraged me with 200 words whilst I still have only an incomplete sentence.

Chris, like members of my family, has to frame things politically. Which means the Fox News echo chamber (I've never seen Fox News , but I sure have heard it !) Absolutely no empathy from him. I usually start insulting religion to back him down.

Don...fuck that guy. I avoid him like the plague. I try to do business with his daughter Kim and his workers
1st time I saw him since last year, he was delivering some material to Joyce's job. He JUMPS out of the van, gets in my face and starts carrying on about "this shit, this scam this joke that's going on. " (c-19).
Good morning to you too asshole. Here's your check, I got work to do, Good Bye!!! I gotta go now! And I climbed back up the ladder. I knew his loud, lazy ass wasn't going to follow me up onto the roof.

Anyway, I am going to call Joyce back next week and see if she will arrange lunch with her, I and Lisa her neighbor....

That's all I got. Signing out

Yes, there are some of us who are different. I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with so much of that

I wouldn't label the guy as narcissistic. People can become self-absorbed for many reasons. Have you ever met a person who has recently become handicapped? Or how about someone who has been viciously dumped from a relationship? Or a person, like me, who can't remember what a date is like. Narcissism isn't always the answer.